The Office of High Sheriff is an independent non-political appointment for a single year. The origins of the Office date back to Saxon times, when the ‘Shire Reeve’ was responsible to the king for the maintenance of law and order within the shire, or county, and for the collection and return of taxes due to the Crown. Today, there are 55 High Sheriffs serving the counties of England and Wales each year. My own appointment for Belfast was through the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Whilst the duties of the role have evolved over time, supporting the Crown and the judiciary remain central elements of the role today. In addition, High Sheriffs actively lend support and encouragement to crime prevention agencies, the emergency services and to the voluntary sector. In recent years High Sheriffs in many parts of England and Wales have been particularly active in encouraging crime reduction initiatives, especially amongst young people. Many High Sheriffs also assist Community Foundations and local charities working with vulnerable and other people both in endorsing and helping to raise the profile of their valuable work. The High Sheriff Association adopted DebtCred and Crimebeat in recent years in response to specific areas of need.
I have recently formed a Posse comitatus, to support the rule of Law and Order in Belfast in the coming Decade of Centenaries. This will enter the public domain at the end of this month and will outlive my tenure as High Sheriff at the end of December, when I will more fully enter another service. The Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon; compare hue and cry. Originally found in English common law, it has not now generally been applied; however, it survives in America, where it is the law enforcement equivalent of summoning the militia for military purposes.
The term derives from the Latin posse comitatūs, “the power of the county” or the right to an armed retinue, in English use from the late 16th century, shortened to posse from the mid 17th century. While the original meaning refers to a group of citizens assembled by the authorities to deal with an emergency (such as suppressing a riot or pursuing felons), the term posse is also used for any force or band, often also figuratively or humorously. In 19th-century usage, posse comitatus also acquires the generalized or figurative meaning.
The powers of sheriffs for posse comitatus were codified by section 8 of the Sheriffs Act 1887 for England and Wales, the first subsection of which stated that:
Every person in a county shall be ready and apparelled at the command of the sheriff and at the cry of the country to arrest a felon whether within a franchise or without, and in default shall on conviction be liable to a fine, and if default be found in the lord of the franchise he shall forfeit the franchise to the Queen, and if in the bailiff he shall be liable besides the fine to imprisonment for not more than one year, or if he have not whereof to pay the fine, than two years.
This permitted the (high) sheriff of each county to call every citizen to his assistance to catch a person who had committed a felony – that is, a serious crime. It provided for fines for those who did not comply. The provisions for posse comitatus were repealed by the Criminal Law Act 1967. However, the second subsection provided for the sheriff to take 'the power of the county' if he faced resistance whilst executing a writ, and provided for the arrest of resisters. This subsection is still in force.